Verb

(devis)

To use one's intellect to plan or design (something).

to devise''' an argument; to '''devise a machine, or a new system of writing

* Bancroft

devising schemes to realize his ambitious views

*

Thus, the task of the linguist devising' a grammar which models the linguistic competence of the fluent native speaker is to '''devise a ''finite'' set of rules which are capable of specifying how to form, interpret, and pronounce an ''infinite set of well-formed sentences.

To leave (property) in a will.

(archaic) To form a scheme; to lay a plan; to contrive; to consider.

* Alexander Pope

I thought, devised , and Pallas heard my prayer.

(archaic) To plan or scheme for; to plot to obtain.

* Spenser

For wisdom is most riches; fools therefore / They are which fortunes do by vows devise .

(obsolete) To imagine; to guess.

(Spenser)

Verb

To form a mental image of something; to envision or create something in one's mind.

* Shakespeare

In the night, imagining some fear, / How easy is a bush supposed a bear!

* {{quote-magazine, date=2013-06-14, author=(Jonathan Freedland)

, volume=189, issue=1, page=18, magazine=(The Guardian Weekly) , title= Obama's once hip brand is now tainted , passage=Now we are liberal with our innermost secrets, spraying them into the public ether with a generosity our forebears could not have imagined . Where we once sent love letters in a sealed envelope, or stuck photographs of our children in a family album, now such private material is despatched to servers and clouds operated by people we don't know and will never meet.}}

To believe in something created by one's own mind.

To assume.

To conjecture or guess.

To use one's imagination.

(obsolete) To contrive in purpose; to scheme; to devise.

* Bible, Psalms lxii. 3

How long will ye imagine mischief against a man?